Vrykul | Arakkoa: race concepts & ideas

Vrykul
General highlights:
- Horde side
- starting location is in Howling Fjord, the area around Utgarde Keep (which is the capital).
- this race starts at level 63 and is meant to complete the starting area not before level 67.
- racial mounts are bears (polar, grizzly, grey).
- race's boss is King Ymiron, followed by his wife Queen Angerboda.(King Ymiron and Queen Angerboda)

(Howling Fjord is the land of Vrykuls, starting area in the red cirlcle, capital marked by the star. The lore-quests will mainly explain you the origins and traditions of the Vrykuls and will make you fight the remnant forces of the Lich King)

(A Warrior Vrykul confused about the Pandaren race)
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Arakkoa
General highlights:
- Alliance side
- starting location is Terokkar Forest, near the area of Skettis (WARNING!: You will be part of the Skettis Exiles so the quests make you fight the evil Arakkoas of Terokk and makes you conquer Skettis which will become your capital).
- this race starts at level 63 and is meant to complete the starting area not before level 67.
- racial mount is the Raven Lord (variable colors).
- race's boss are Kirrik the Awakened and Rilak the Redeemed.(you, supported by Kirrik and Rilak, leaders of the Exiles, will have to take Skettis back and expel the evil Terokk's presence)

(Terokkar Forest is the main land of Arakkoas, starting area lvl 63 in the red circle (floating island nagrand style) and Skettis will be the capital after having completed the chain lore-quests around level 67).

Race bonuses:Shrewdness (passive) = expertise and haste rating increase by 1%.Feathered Cloak (passive) = melee attacks received have a chance to release sharp feathers which deal damage equal to 1% of your maximum health.Rapacious Impulse = you peck violently at the enemy's eyes causing damage equal to your agility plus disorienting him for 2 seconds. Doesn't work against mechanicals or elementals, 3 minutes cooldown.Ravenform = allows you to fly with the form of the raven, granting also 10% faster health and mana regeneration.

Thank you all about the nice comments, I'll answer to most of the reviews:

About Vrykuls
- King Ymiron and his wife Angerboda died yes, but didn't die every boss we killed too? I mean, I don't see any other possible leader for Vrykuls, let them raise again and say sorry to everyone and give an high-five to Thrall. Ymiron was evil cause of the Lich King's control over him (false but just imagining a Blizz explanation).
- Vrykuls to the Horde just because they really dislike Humans and have a "barbarian concept" that will fit very well into the Horde. They also live with the Valkyrs, allied with Sylvanas.

About Arakkoas
- Arakkoas can be druid, I think, because they live in the Terokkar Forest, on tree-houses. They are also basically birds, so they're already so a kind of shapeshift! Also think at the awesome bird-style forms that can be created.
- they can fly as racial... what's the problem? It's just like a mount with 2 sec cast.

About high level starting
- I don't see any problem, except for the fact that their start will include lot of class' abilities together that may cause confusion to new players. So maybe they should be playable like DKs, you can roll them if you have at least a lvl 65 character (example).

both pretty cool races that i'd love to play, but i don't think they fit lorewise, especially the Arakkoa. but i'd play an Arakkoa warlock for sure!

Originally Posted by endus

A thread about how hard it is being a white dude is not really a reasonable topic.

Originally Posted by Gabriel

You are assuming Cybran actually reads the articles he links.
I suspect he is actually some Soviet algorithm gone rogue, transmitting from some forgotten bunker, responding to keywords by googling them and adding "+bad" to the search query, and then just copy/pasting anything it comes across.

just imagine the alliance whining if a horde race started 10 levels higher...

Originally Posted by endus

A thread about how hard it is being a white dude is not really a reasonable topic.

Originally Posted by Gabriel

You are assuming Cybran actually reads the articles he links.
I suspect he is actually some Soviet algorithm gone rogue, transmitting from some forgotten bunker, responding to keywords by googling them and adding "+bad" to the search query, and then just copy/pasting anything it comes across.

I'm not really a fan of the afforementioned races and if horde gets another race before Ogres I'll be pissed. Also, starting a new race at any other level than 1 could prove quite problematic. Otherwise, nice presentation.

I think that if they introduced a "hero race", a race that starts at a high level, there would be a problem of all players making all of their new alts that race just to power to max level. The reason it works for a class is because all death knights start at the same level regardless of race, so it's an even playing field.

People who want to play warriors will definitely switch races for a level boost. People who want to play warriors won't switch class for a level boost, because then they'd cease to be a warrior.

How i'd love to play an arrakoa !!! I've even farmed crazy to get the trinket but this is sad you can't really play with it because of it using a useless trinket slot. As a shadow priest, i think the animations would be awesome, the same for locks. These are indead dark creatures and they're devoted to that strange Old God (or Old-god like creature) in the Shadowmoon Valley. Amazing !!!! However it might sound weird but why would an entire race begin at lvl 63 /67 for the Vry'kuls ?

1. What is the rational for these races to join either faction ? I don't see any...
2. Both King Ymiron & his wife Queen Angerboda are deceased, aka they cannot lead any faction....
3. Quoting from the classes you suggested for the Vrykul (I have a few notes):

Most races don't want anything to do with the Lich King:
DKs (playable) are Alliance / Horde veterans who were enslaved by the Lich King IN THE PAST and at some point afterwards regained their free will and joined back the Alliance & the Horde.
The Vrykul race was highly exposed to the LKs influence; being a race native to northrend, it would make perfect sense for them to have Death Knights.
They should be able to be Monks, and perhaps, as a human-like race, poses the ability to embrace the light, thus becoming either a Priest or a Paladin.
You might wanna reconsider making them Druids, it's possible, but very unlikely.

4. Quoting from your Arakkoa list of classes, I have a few notes aswell:

You should definelty cross-off Druid as a potential class, doesn't work for these at all.
Making them able to play Rogue is highly questionable aswell, as they're a race very dependant on cloth armor and spellcasting, but, in theory, some Arakkoa (with perhaps a slim buid, making them agile) could become Rogues.

5. Just a personal opinion of mine: Arakkoa are an aesthetically unpleasing race, boring, dull in lore, and should never become a playable race.
New races are not something I'm looking for in general... other things are more appealing, but maybe as an allied NPC faction, both could work (given there would be lore to justify it).

Otherwise, I like your ideas, racials can be tweaked and balanced alittle bit more.

Normally when i see a thread about new races i think to myself "not this again...", but i love the idea of vrykul! Sign me up for a warrior (although id pick dk if it was available). For me they would have to start at 67, i don't think id bother leveling up again if it was lower than that as im busy these days.

hey lets support some faction Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdoms and fight against their enemies! its gonna be fun to join one of the factions and work together with the mighty Varian or cool Vol'jin! who cares that they doesnt affect us in any way and who cares that they doesnt have reason to help us! lets help them! Thats sure that Horde needs stronghold in Northrend and Alliance always wanted to have Shattrath!

Vrykul
- this race starts at level 67 and is meant to complete the starting area not before level 70.
Arakkoa
- this race starts at level 63 and is meant to complete the starting area not before level 67.

Balance anyone ? I understand you calculated the levels on the original level of the zone (howling fjord, skettis), but if these races were to be introduced, these zones would have to be changed anyway, so let's begin by making it fair and not starting a shitstorm between Alliance and Horde.

Originally Posted by Ricirich91

- race's boss is King Ymiron, followed by his wife Queen Angerboda.

Either you give me a red shirt guy explanation on how they survived being killed by players, I won't accept them. Yes they're cool, but they're dead, so improbable.

Originally Posted by Ricirich91

Race/class combination:
[SIZE=2]D.K. = X {they don't want to have anything to do with the Lich King again}.

No new DK can be created to my knowledge since it was a Lich King thing, and well, he's dead. But they could be DK if they're previous DK that broke free for a reason. It's a possibility (a strong one).

Originally Posted by Ricirich91

Druid = V (cat form like a puma, you know it's usually called "mountain lion")[B]

Absolutely no link to nature, except if you pull a magical reason for it. We haven't seen an inch of nature capabilities in Vrykul, and they don't have anything related to the classical elements of druidism (ancients/loa, shapeshifting, link to the dream, ...)